The Gender and Development Committee (GAD) of Peace Corps Ecuador is a volunteer-lead organization that strives to remedy gender inequality in the country. With this mission in mind, the Gender Seminar will help Peace Corps volunteers work with their Ecuadorian counterparts to improve gender awareness. The conference provides a unique atmosphere in which volunteers and counterparts are able to have a beneficial cultural exchange regarding gender and how the roles of men and women affect community development. Volunteers and their counterparts will have the opportunity to collaborate and develop projects that are gender-sensitive.

The Gender Seminar is a two-day event with dual objectives. The first day’s objective is to discuss the meaning of gender through various gender awareness activities. The second day involves planning projects with a gender-focus using various case studies and a session in how to use the Gender Analysis Matrix (GAM) as a tool to help make Peace Corps volunteer/counterpart projects more gender-sensitive. The GAM assists the volunteer and counterpart in looking specifically at gender roles within a given community and how both women and men will be affected by a proposed development project.